The Street Fighter series has a wide variety of characters of many different ages, though tracking down any canonical references to a specific age can be difficult. Thanks to the series’ messy timeline, Capcom seems reluctant to state how old its characters are. Thankfully, some hints that have been peppered throughout the games help provide a clearer picture.
In specific versions of Street Fighter 2, most of the characters were given birthdays, including birth years. Later entries still include each new character's birthday, but without the year, making it impossible to figure out their ages without just blindly guessing. The timeline also became more complicated, with games no longer taking place during their year of release. After all, most of the cast from the older games would be much older than they appear to be, considering the Street Fighter series celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2022. The addition of smartphones and modern technology messes up the chronology of the Street Fighter universe even more, blurring the lines of this timeline to the point where it becomes confusing to know when exactly events are meant to take place.
Perhaps the easiest starting point for looking at how old some characters are is Street Fighter 2 and its many updated editions. These games provided birth years for the vast majority of their playable characters, with only a handful of exceptions like M. Bison. The game is set in roughly the early 1990s, so a rough estimate of their ages can be easily established. Although the birth years seem to have been retconned, they give a good reference point for how old the characters were meant to be at this time.
Street Fighter 2 Gave Every Character A Canonical Age
Street Fighter 2's characters are some of the most iconic of the series, with many going on to appear in separate series like Fortnite, including Guile and Cammy. During the time that Street Fighter 2 is set, the main cast's ages range from the early 20s to the early 40s.
- Chun-Li age, Balrog, and Fei Long are in their early 20s.
- Ryu, Ken, Dee Jay, Blanka, and Vega are approximately in their mid-20s in Street Fighter 2.
- E. Honda and Guile are in their early 30s, with Sagat, Zangief and T. Hawk being a few years older than them.
- Dhalsim is around 40 years old, making him the oldest playable character of those with a set birth year.
- Cammy was only 17 in her debut.
Only two other Street Fighter original characters from later entries have received official ages. The first of these came from Street Fighter 3, which almost wasn't a Street Fighter game at all, but was reworked into one. Sean was said to be around 17 in his Street Fighter 3 debut. He has an older sister in Laura, who debuted in Street Fighter 5. She’s said to be six years older than him, making her 23 at the time of Street Fighter 3, with her actual age not being stated in her playable debut. This makes bridging the time between Street Fighter 5 and Street Fighter 3 more difficult, though not impossible.
From finding out how old these characters were in earlier games, it’s important to work out when the rest of the games are set in comparison to each other in order to provide a solid reference point. Street Fighter 3 is currently the last chronological entry in the series to be released. In Street Fighter 4, which introduced some classic characters, Ken’s wife is pregnant with their son Mel, who is then three years old in Street Fighter 3. That’s one of the most undeniable chronological connections between any of the more recent entries in the series. He’s a toddler in Street Fighter 5, putting it roughly in the middle of the two.
The Missing Link Between Street Fighter 2 & Street Fighter 4
The gap between Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter 4 is a trickier one to pin down due to no young characters aging up in such a clear way. Generally, this fourth entry is the game that threw the timeline to the wayside, creating a bunch of inconsistencies with the characters’ ages. Some that are meant to be older than others are the same age as them. The general consensus is that it takes place roughly a year or two after Street Fighter 2, though the aberrations make it difficult to say for sure.
The Street Fighter series is no stranger to crossovers with other franchises. Many Street Fighter games also include crossovers with the Final Fight series, especially the Street Fighter Alpha games. Guy from has made multiple appearances in Street Fighter games, and he is in his mid-20s, according to that series. Cody is from the same series, and he’s said to be two years younger than Guy, and Lucia is six years younger than Cody. With the Street Fighter Alpha series supposedly taking place between the first and second Street Fighter games, this would make them all slightly older by the time Street Fighter 2 took place. This connection between the two franchises looks to continue in Street Fighter 6, with Damnd making a non-playable appearance. In fact, Street Fighter 6 resembles Final Fight a lot.
The many retcons and inconsistencies that plague the Street Fighter series make it difficult to truly know if this is even close to the canon timeline, but it’s about as much as can feasibly be pieced together. Official statements which are few and far between and younger characters aging up are about the best determiners as to how old the characters in the series truly are. From Street Fighter 2, it’s reasonable to assume that about seven to nine years have passed until the series’ current chronological endpoint of Street Fighter 3.
Street Fighter 6 Will Advance The Timeline Further
After years of filling in the gaps between Street Fighter 2 and its sequel, it looks like Street Fighter 6 will be advancing the timeline. With a focus on new talent and Ryu getting a new look in Street Fighter 6, it’s possible that there may be a time jump of a few years. A young girl has also been shown in a couple of trailers, and it’s suspected that she is an older version of Li-Fen, Chun-Li's adopted daughter. Therefore, it’s very possible that the next entry in the series will have a larger time skip than its past few predecessors.
Whether Street Fighter 6 decides to give official ages for their characters is unknown, though based on the recent history of the series, it seems unlikely. Until then, all fans can do is theorize about how the timeline of the series, which becomes increasingly complex with each passing game. One thing is for sure though, and it’s that the Street Fighter series has a convoluted and unclear timeline that puts the Zelda series’ infamously messy timeline to shame.